"To Mr. Curtis should go the credit for raising the issue and enforcing the principle that police should not affiliate with any outside body, whether of wage earners or of wage payers, but should remain unattached, impartial officers of the law, with sole allegiance to the public."
- Calvin Coolidge

One-paragraph review: Lots of people rise to the top in business by being successful salespeople, managers, or administrators. In some cases, that's very good training for the ultimate role; in others, it's woefully inadequate (thus, the Peter Principle). But every company has to determine not only how to allocate its human resources, but also its financial ones (that is, once you make money, you have to decide what to do with it). And the problem is that there are very few ways to adequately train people for that kind of task. It's much easier to mindlessly expand a managerial domain and spend on corporate excesses and go along with whatever high-priced consultants say than to figure out, objectively and independently, what should be done with a company's profits. Those who are really good at it stand out, and this book is about those standouts (or, as Thorndike calls them, outsiders). A high degree of rationality in the allocation of a company's capital can make an enormous difference to its long-term success, and while it may be harder to find than, say, classic managerial skill, it's at least equally important. Thorndike's "outsiders" aren't all the same, but the ways in which they stand out are very much alike.